I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Berkley/Hachette Australia & New Zealand, and Ashley Herring Blake for this opportunity.

Make the Season Bright has some tropes I absolutely love, like snowed in, and some I hate, such as miscommunication. Much of this book is based around miscommunication and if Charlotte and Brighton would have just sat down after the last Turtledoves event and actually talked to one another it would have been more rewarding. I didn't see the point of the third act breakup as they weren't actually together. They could have been empowered together, instead of going through the feelings of a 'break up' all over again.

The parts I did love, like the horse riding incident, showed how much Charlotte still loved Brighton and how she wanted to help her and make her feel better. They had undeniable chemistry and as they came together and let their guards down, all they wanted was to be loved and love one another.

I also loved that Brighton was able to stand up to her old band with her friend by her side. That was pretty damn good. The ending of this book was sweet and showed that sometimes second chances are all you need.

If you love Christmas-themed romances with a touch of second-chance romance and the cozy atmosphere that a holiday-themed book brings, then this could certainly be for you.

Firstly, what's interesting to me is that this is perhaps the third sapphic-themed romance where the FMC has been left at the altar—I'll ponder that another time.

Overall, this book was atmospheric and cozy; those were probably the highlights for me. I felt like this book could have stood to lose 50+ pages, and I found myself really tired towards the end, skimming from about the 85% mark.

Friends to lovers is not always my cup of tea, but in this instance, where we had the chance for a second chance romance, I felt there was something left to be desired about the relationship here. I didn't connect with it and I didn't necessarily find myself rooting for the couple in the end.

I think I could have maybe appreciated things more if we dropped the music aspect and focused on the small town, two turtle doves thing, and perhaps had the FMCs running into each other a little bit later in the story. I found the believability that they were both friends with Adele and Sloane too much of a coincidence, however, I guess these things do happen in romances.

This book is like a cozy cup of hot cocoa, sweet, comforting, and just what you need to get into the holiday mood.

Blake's writing style is wonderfully warm and engaging, with a knack for bringing the magic of the season to life. The way she crafts her characters makes you feel like you’re right there with them, celebrating, falling in love, and experiencing the highs and lows of the holiday season. The chemistry between the characters is sparkling, full of those little moments that make your heart skip a beat.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hachette Australia for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this was a very sweet, queery-cheery holiday romance. I really enjoyed the second-chance romance trope - I love the emotional conflict that comes with still loving someone even though you want to hate them. I thought this was done really well, and I could feel the tension between the main characters. I also enjoyed the plot and the writing style.

The main thing that was lacking for me was the character development. Connecting with the characters is the most important part of the reading experience for me, and unfortunately I felt like they could have been fleshed out more in this book. For the first half, we only really touched on the surface of the two main characters. We spent most of the time learning about Charlotte, but I didn't feel like I really knew her. I think this was a combination of the third person writing, and also that she was emotionally closed off to everyone which made it hard to connect with as a reader too. Brighton felt even less complete, amd I think this was mainly because we spent more time with Charlotte. The characters were very complex and I definitely felt like the second half was a big improvement, but I think the first half missed its potential. Despite this, I still loved them together and I could really relate to parts of Charlotte's character. I loved all the secondary characters in this book too, however, I also think some of them at times suffered from a lack of development or time.

Overall a really enjoyable festive romance and I can't wait for December now!

This was a cute festive read from Ashley Herring Blake!

This book makes me want to pick up more titles of hers :)

Lola and Brighton were childhood sweethearts who were destined for happily ever after, that is until Brighton leaves Lola at the altar with no explanation. Five years and a comedy of coincidences later has Lola and Bright spending Christmas together. Lola wants to leave everything in the past but Brighton wants a chance to explain herself

I'm not entirely sure why, but I sort of think this might be my favourite Ashley Herring Blake novel to date. There was just something about this one that made me blow through it quickly despite being in a bit of a reading slump right now.

I really enjoyed how both girls were pursuing music but in pretty different ways, Brighton's plot with the Katies was particularly interesting but I wish we got a bit more of it. I'm a pretty vengeance-hungry person so I wasn't totally satisfied with the way that plot was resolved - not just the stolen song but Brighton being ousted from the band - it would have been nice to see the girls who didn't know the song was stolen to have a moment with Brighton later on.

I think this is probably my biggest criticism of the book in general, everything felt a little bit too surface-level. I think we needed more of an exploration of why Brighton had to leave, why Lola realised that she was in the wrong too, and more of a look into Lola's relationship with her absentee mother and how that impacted what happened with Brighton and her choices in the aftermath. It just felt like there were a lot of gold nuggets that could have been really drawn out to make the characters feel more developed and rich.

But all in al, I did really enjoy this one and I'll definitely be grabbing a physical copy to add to my AHB collection!

Thankyou to Netgalley and Hachette Australia & New Zealand for an arc in exchange for an honest review.